Did China Trade Deficit Kill 3.4 Million American Jobs?

The argument continues to be made that America’s trade relationship with China has cost the United States jobs. It is one of the debates at the core of the new administration’s plans to bring jobs that have gone overseas back to America. One research company recently reported that the trade deficit has indeed cost millions of jobs over the past decade and a half.

Growth in the U.S. goods trade deficit with China eliminated or displaced 3.4 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2015, EPI Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research Robert E. Scott finds in Growth in U.S.–China trade deficit between 2001 and 2015 cost 3.4 million jobs. The trade deficit with China has more than quadrupled since the country’s entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO), rising from $83 billion in 2001 to $367.2 billion in 2015. This rise has led to job losses in every state (and the District of Columbia) and congressional district.